All home gardeners love tomatoes. And, no wonder since nothing tastes quite as good as a luscious, vine-ripened tomato. Store brands try to compete, but they are never the same as home-grown tomatoes. That's why almost every gardener wants to try their hand at raising their own tomatoes.

If you want to grow tomato plants that produce a heavy yield, you will need to learn the correct way to prune your tomato plants. Otherwise, you'll end up with leggy plants, and very few tomatoes.

You can prune to either one stem, or two. This article will explain how to prune both ways.

To prune to one stem:

1. Find the spot where the bottom group of leaves connects to the stem


2. If there is a leaf growing at the juncture between the stem and the group of leaves, break it off with your fingers or cut it with pruning shears. It is best to prune suckers when they are less than 4 inches long.


3. Continue up the plant, removing all the suckers along the main stem. Be careful not to remove the terminal bud (growing tip).


4. Check weekly for new suckers and remove.


To prune to two stems:

1. Leave the bottom sucker, but remove all those above it. The sucker at the bottom will become the second stem


2. Continue to remove suckers on both stems as above. With two stems, the plant has more foliage, which protects fruit from sunburn and cracking.


Either way you choose to approach it will work. You just need to decide which method works best for your climate. If you live in a very hot climate with intense sun, I recommend that you use the two stem pruning method. You will find that pruning to two stems works best since it provides your fruit with some additional shade.